Au Revoir………..till we meet again
It is surprising how time can change and change you too. Just five days ago 126 of us had begun a journey. And already, in these five days, bonds have started to form - not just confined to our batch mates, but also with the orienteers. Prior to the start of the course, none of us could have imagined that 16 outgoing MBA’s were busy working out a complete orientation schedule for us. By the end of “O” week (O for orientation), the orienteers had become a symbol of the Cranfield experience to us. But of course, on the morning of the last day of O-week, we were still to realize this…….
The day started with elections for Sports Rep and Social Reps for all three streams. And it seemed that our stream would continue giving faster heartbeats to all candidates. There was once again a tie between three candidates for the Red Stream Social Rep positions – Roy Masamba (Zimbabwe), Antonio Topham (Britain) and John McIntyre (Britain). This time the stream decided to have three social rep’s instead of the usual two – after all more social reps would mean more parties and more social events!
We were all dressed to kill in smart business suits for the Class photo session scheduled today. After the elections, we all moved to the King Norton Library theatre where representatives from the Cranfield Trust / Disability and Learning Support gave us a talk encouraging us to look at non-profit sector for project assignments as well as careers. The next session was by the legendary Steve Carver who introduced us to the Presentation & Communication Skills (PCS) workshop. PCS is a non-assessed subject that continues over Term 1 and Term 2, BUT it is the course most highly rated by Cranfield MBAs year after year. Steve is an amazing speaker with a natural flair for capturing the audience completely…no wonder he has been consistently rated by students as one of the top faculty of the school.
The entire batch then proceeded outside for the year photograph. The photographer was about to shoot when all the orienteers (who were till then making faces from across the road so that we would have natural grins in the photograph) started singing “Happy birthday to you……” for Nikki Mellor (Britain) - one of the students in our batch.
But the day belonged to some others too.
Post lunch we all assembled in the Forum again with John Glen and the orienteers to officially close the O-week. The entire team of sixteen orienteers and three partner orienteers’ stood before us. I think this Diary of MBA 2004/05 would be incomplete without reference to each one of them. So here goes (in alphabetical order):
Adam Campbell (Britain)
Claire Priest (Britain)
Daniel Nisser (Sweden)
Fergus Drake (Britain)
Isobel Rea (Britain)
Jan Wemmel (Germany)
Jean-Michel Maltais (Canada)
Kai Chan (Britain / Hong Kong)
Kofi Atuah (Ghana)
Namrita Mahindro (India)
Paddy Radcliffe (Britain)
Rachael Wilson (Britain)
Rob Lanham (Britain)
Rob Whitehead (Britain)
Santi Mayo (Spain)
Stella Yuan (China)
And the partner orienteers were:
Jennifer Lanham (partner to Rob L)
Dominic Herring (partner to Rachel)
Suzette Tacoteau (partner to Kofi)
The long hard journey of this incredibly talented team was coming to a close. The applause from all of us went on and on. Our entire batch, with their hands raised, continued clapping for each and every orienteer. No one wanted to stop………and the clapping was not enough. Many amongst us with moist eyes, could not have found words that would have conveyed our feelings adequately. But the eyes gave us away. For these sixteen, it was time to bid a formal goodbye to us and the school….
Strangely enough, the last session of the day was titled “Lift-off” – lift off for the 11 month-long flight that would make us the Cranfield MBA batch of 2005. It was a subtle message from the orienteers, “now get on with the task ahead of you”. We first saw a video film on Geese and how we should learn team dynamics from these birds. Then, each of the orienteers shared some personal insights with us and quietly walked out…while we were still immersed in watching another special presentation, with a great song playing in the backdrop. This last presentation gave numerous insights into life at Cranfield and the messages were pearls of wisdom for all of us.
To the orienteers, this is what I have to say: “Fly as high as you can; the height you attain will show the strength of your wings!” (Anonymous).
We salute you, our dear friends. If “you” is what I can become through the Cranfield experience, I am proud to be here.
The day started with elections for Sports Rep and Social Reps for all three streams. And it seemed that our stream would continue giving faster heartbeats to all candidates. There was once again a tie between three candidates for the Red Stream Social Rep positions – Roy Masamba (Zimbabwe), Antonio Topham (Britain) and John McIntyre (Britain). This time the stream decided to have three social rep’s instead of the usual two – after all more social reps would mean more parties and more social events!
We were all dressed to kill in smart business suits for the Class photo session scheduled today. After the elections, we all moved to the King Norton Library theatre where representatives from the Cranfield Trust / Disability and Learning Support gave us a talk encouraging us to look at non-profit sector for project assignments as well as careers. The next session was by the legendary Steve Carver who introduced us to the Presentation & Communication Skills (PCS) workshop. PCS is a non-assessed subject that continues over Term 1 and Term 2, BUT it is the course most highly rated by Cranfield MBAs year after year. Steve is an amazing speaker with a natural flair for capturing the audience completely…no wonder he has been consistently rated by students as one of the top faculty of the school.
The entire batch then proceeded outside for the year photograph. The photographer was about to shoot when all the orienteers (who were till then making faces from across the road so that we would have natural grins in the photograph) started singing “Happy birthday to you……” for Nikki Mellor (Britain) - one of the students in our batch.
But the day belonged to some others too.
Post lunch we all assembled in the Forum again with John Glen and the orienteers to officially close the O-week. The entire team of sixteen orienteers and three partner orienteers’ stood before us. I think this Diary of MBA 2004/05 would be incomplete without reference to each one of them. So here goes (in alphabetical order):
Adam Campbell (Britain)
Claire Priest (Britain)
Daniel Nisser (Sweden)
Fergus Drake (Britain)
Isobel Rea (Britain)
Jan Wemmel (Germany)
Jean-Michel Maltais (Canada)
Kai Chan (Britain / Hong Kong)
Kofi Atuah (Ghana)
Namrita Mahindro (India)
Paddy Radcliffe (Britain)
Rachael Wilson (Britain)
Rob Lanham (Britain)
Rob Whitehead (Britain)
Santi Mayo (Spain)
Stella Yuan (China)
And the partner orienteers were:
Jennifer Lanham (partner to Rob L)
Dominic Herring (partner to Rachel)
Suzette Tacoteau (partner to Kofi)
The long hard journey of this incredibly talented team was coming to a close. The applause from all of us went on and on. Our entire batch, with their hands raised, continued clapping for each and every orienteer. No one wanted to stop………and the clapping was not enough. Many amongst us with moist eyes, could not have found words that would have conveyed our feelings adequately. But the eyes gave us away. For these sixteen, it was time to bid a formal goodbye to us and the school….
Strangely enough, the last session of the day was titled “Lift-off” – lift off for the 11 month-long flight that would make us the Cranfield MBA batch of 2005. It was a subtle message from the orienteers, “now get on with the task ahead of you”. We first saw a video film on Geese and how we should learn team dynamics from these birds. Then, each of the orienteers shared some personal insights with us and quietly walked out…while we were still immersed in watching another special presentation, with a great song playing in the backdrop. This last presentation gave numerous insights into life at Cranfield and the messages were pearls of wisdom for all of us.
To the orienteers, this is what I have to say: “Fly as high as you can; the height you attain will show the strength of your wings!” (Anonymous).
We salute you, our dear friends. If “you” is what I can become through the Cranfield experience, I am proud to be here.
posted by Sandeep Gupta at
9:46 pm
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